The Second Chance: Calvin's Newsest Adventure II
by Calvin Potterson
Summary: After a dream that spanned twenty years of his life as the lead singer of Xtreme Machine, Calvin goes on a quest to achieve his fame and fortune while already knowing what lies ahead. (Co-written by Elvenking and CP)


The Second Chance: Calvin's Newest Adventure II  
Me no own Calvin and Hobbes  
Co-written by Calvin Potterson and Elvenking  
  
Calvin sat back in his desk at school, barely hearing Ms. Wormwood drone  
on and on about sine, cosine, and tangents; naturally getting nothing out  
of the math lesson. Instead he was looking down at his notebook, his  
hands on the side of his face in despair. The CD laying atop the spiral  
notebook had tigers on it, an incredibly awesome Xtreme Machine logo, and  
even the lyrics to the songs in the casing. He slightly begin humming  
"Four score and seven years ago people looked high and then looked  
low..." finally singing the words under his breath and snapping his  
fingers in tune with the beat.  
  
The thing was... it simply couldn't be possible. He picked up a number  
two pencil off his desk with the fingers he'd been snapping so as to  
prevent the fingers from doing that subconsciously again. He bit down on  
his lower lip, which forced the music down his throat and the words  
jumped to his mind. He begin tapping his right foot in beat with "Don't  
say nay...", and he examined a few other songs in the CD jacket. "I'm  
Gonna Be Your Friend", which he had performed for an excited audience to  
celebrate his friendship with Hobbes, "Hearts, Cooties, Beauty & the  
Beast", and "Hobbes' Short Song".  
  
No, he told himself again, it wasn't possible. He grimaced slightly as he  
remembered kissing Susie on his wedding day...or had it been? The dream  
sequencing had been odd, and the disjointed dialogues still flowed in his  
mind. The snowball fight on Christmas Day, "Iguana Sauna", Tracer Bullet  
playing the drums for his first and only concert...how could it possibly  
be?  
  
He had always been Stupendous Man, or morphed into Spiff, or donned the  
detective's hat and became Tracer Bullet...they weren't different people,  
they were alter-egos.   
  
Calvin sighed, if he thought about this anymore, he was apt to go insane.  
  
Although, tied down with a straight jacket could at least assure he may  
have enough time to sort this out in his mind. He looked down at his desk  
and found that he had opened the notebook and had his pencil dangling  
over the page precariously, about to write.   
  
He was a bit shocked, and shook his head. He was going absolutely mad, it  
wasn't possible, it didn't exist.  
  
Then, again as if his hand had a mind of its own, he wrote out "Things To  
Change In This Life". He hesitated, unsure about were to begin. Then  
sighed, first, he figured, and gazed over at Susie. Well, that was number  
one. He scribbled out in his ineligible handwriting: Tell Susie Early.  
  
He stopped, and pondered what do put next. He wrote down...Names for  
Band. He bit on the eraser of his pencil in intense concentration, and  
scribbled out a few names....Isthmus, Back in Orange and Black, Orange  
Stripes, Baby-Sat, The Transmogrifiers...he shook his head. None of them  
seemed to fit the persona of Xtreme Machine.  
  
Then he remembered that Hobbes had proved his dexterity at the guitar,  
and some people called him a guitar god. Yet still that failed to fit.  
  
Finally, in what seemed like a divine-inspired event, the perfect name  
came to him. It was his second chance apparently, so it could be called  
"Second Chance".  
  
He continued his list in the noble efforts of a hero fighting the  
strongest tide. He finally had a four-page long list of things to  
remember, places to go, and people to rejoin. As school got out, he went  
over to go persuade Susie.  
  
Susie, the brown-haired genius of his world, was, to say the least, a  
little apprehensive. She had been convinced, ever since she first moved  
into the neighborhood, that Calvin was insane. Naturally, Calvin's  
description of his dream didn't help his case at all. Like Calvin, the  
confusion was overwhelming for Susie, who simply asked Calvin to remind  
her tomorrow.  
  
Neither of the six-year-olds slept soundly that night. When they met at  
the bus stop, Susie looked like something the dog dragged in, and Calvin  
looked ten times worse. However, Susie's night of thinking was not in  
vain, and the band finally began to appear.  
  
Naturally, Hobbes had agreed, albeit the not-that-ferocious feline was perturbed by some of the contents of Calvin's dream, which seemed to become more fuzzy and less real to Calvin every time he recanted the awesome images that had flitted through his head one night after having skipped his homework and tossed his salad, chicken, and tortellini down the toilet.  
  
If it wasn't for the compact disc that the young boy now slept with under his pillow, Calvin would probably have cracked under the strain of whether or not the Xtreme Machine had in fact, even existed. The next night, Calvin sat down at his desk, to, for once, actually do his homework, instead, the pen seemed to have a mind of it's own...and a new song was born:  
  
I'm sitting down doing nuthin'  
Filled with questions and wonderin'  
If she's right,   
Or if I'm wrong.  
  
We had this conversation one night,  
Decibels raised into a loud fight,  
I didn't know what to say,  
Seemed like just another day,  
Until  
  
We started to disagree,  
Over just how should we be,  
Who woulda thought that she,  
Would be so touchy...  
  
Well, now I know that my life sucks,  
I must've turned off Lady Luck,  
One night when she was,  
Flirting with me.....because  
  
We started to disagree,  
Over just how should we be,  
Who woulda thought that she,  
Would be so touchy...  
  
I looking up and lookin' down,  
Constantly wearing my thorny crown,  
She's a witch who's cast a spell on me,  
Of insanity....  
  
I'll never know the truth,  
I oughta be saying Et tu, Brute?  
But I'm not,  
Instead I'm wondering why,  
My mouth opened at that time,   
  
Is it better to love  
Or have no love at all  
Or must this love  
Like all else fall?  
  
It's all right now  
You can blame it on me  
If blaming myself   
Brings you back to me  
  
I stare into the sky  
My eyes begin to cry   
The dreams refuse to die  
Why, oh why?  
  
Suddenly, as Calvin sat back in contentment from writing his new song, (Where had such talent emerged from?), he saw a swift blaze of crimson outside his window.  
  
He looked up, startled, and then saw that his window was slowly opening _all by itself_!  
  
The youngster looked in alarm, Hobbes was snoring contentedly on the bed. Calvin leapt up and grabbed the tiger, shaking him awake.  
  
"We are GONNA DIE!" the child screamed.  
  
Hobbes' head hardly moved and he growled friendly-like and rolled over. In a panic, Calvin turned back to the now completely open widnow. There stood Stupendous Man, looking steelily at the six-year old and ferocious feline.  
  
"It is *I*, _Stupendous Man_, Friend of Freedom, Destroyer of Despotism!"  
  
Calvin recoiled in shock, "But.....you're me."  
  
"Not anymore," the alter ego said slyly, "Not anymore,the superhero continued, "I hear you guys need a drummer."  
  



End file.
